2025 Small Grants Pilot

Our small grants pilot built on the connections and lessons from our 2024 Global Open Call, which tested an applicant collective participatory grantmaking process.  You can read more about that pilot here.

Because the Global Open Call was our first experimental pilot, and because of CJRF capacity restrictions in 2024, we used our past experience to build out the design of that pilot. For these reasons, the Global Open Call targeted larger formal groups, and we awarded four multi-year, flexible, $200,000 USD grants.

During the Global Open Call Pilot, CJRF invited applicants to collectively review proposals and decide upon four grants. These grants went to:

Before the Global Open Call pilot was launched in April 2024, CJRF’s Governing Board also committed to offering a pilot for smaller groups. We knew many potential applicants would be disappointed they would not qualify because of their annual budget size. Additionally, our Board wanted to experiment with small grants, something new to CJRF.

Building off the lessons of the first pilot, internal conversations, and a recognition of still-limited CJRF capacity, we designed a Small Grants Pilot using a closed network model to identify smaller organizations for $15,000 grants to use for capacity building activities. The four open call grant recipients (above) were each invited to choose up to two community-based groups in their network to receive seed funding. There was no additional decision-making by CJRF staff.

We hope that by funding new grants for groups and collectives that are known by our current partners, we can strengthen existing movements and networks and support increased resilience for communities.